FACT SHEET ON COUNTERNARCOTICS EFFORTS IN THE ANDEAN REGION

-- Andean net coca cultivation and potential cocaine production
continued to decline in 1999 and is now at its lowest level since
1987. Overall Andean net coca cultivation declined to 180,000 hectares
in 1999, 4 percent less than the 1998 figure, and 15 percent less than
in 1995. Potential cocaine production fell to 765 metric tons, a drop
of 7 percent from the 1998 figure, and an 18 percent drop since 1995.


-- Aggressive drug crop eradication, interdiction operations, and
alternative economic development programs in Peru and Bolivia reduced
coca cultivation in those countries 66% and 55%, respectively, since
1995. In large part due to successful counternarcotics programs in
Peru and Bolivia, coca cultivation in the Andean region has shifted to
guerrilla- and paramilitary-controlled territory in Colombia.


            ANDEAN POTENTIAL COCAINE PRODUCTION

                       (Metric Tons)



          1995      1996     1997      1998      1999

Peru       460       435      325       240       175

Bolivia    240       215      200       150        70

Colombia   230       300      350       435       520



  Totals   930       950      875       825       765



                  ANDEAN COCA CULTIVATION

                        (Hectares)



          1995      1996     1997      1998      1999

Peru      115,300   94,400   68,800    51,000    38,700

Bolivia    48,600   48,100   45,800    38,000    21,800

Colombia   50,900   67,200   79,500   101,800   122,500



Totals    214,800  209,700  194,100   190,800   183,000



-- Colombia now supplies more illicit drugs to the United States than
any other country in the world. Ninety percent of the cocaine in the
U.S. market comes from Colombia -- as does, according to estimates, up
to two-thirds of the heroin on the East Coast.


-- The problems in Colombia affect the lives of Americans at home and
abroad. Illegal drugs cost our society 52,000 lives and nearly $110
billion dollars each year, due to health costs, accidents and lost
productivity.


-- Colombia's drug trafficking organizations are a pernicious source
of instability. They funnel funds to insurgents and vigilante-like
paramilitaries for protection and other services. Meanwhile, the
traffickers' relentless intimidating and corrupting influence
constitutes a serious threat to the rule of law and free-market
democratic institutions in Colombia.


-- The Government of Colombia recognizes the severity of the threat
and is fully committed to cooperating with the United States on
counternarcotics issues. This is a historic opportunity to provide
Colombia the support and material it needs to implement Plan Colombia
and to ensure that coca and opium poppy cultivation are eventually
eliminated.


-- President Clinton's assistance package is fully in line with our
$18.5 billion National Drug Control Strategy, which outlines a
comprehensive attack on the illicit drug trade -- from eliminating
production at the source, interdicting drug shipments and prosecuting
traffickers, to reducing U.S. consumption through $6 billion worth of
prevention, treatment and rehabilitation programs.


-- The supply reduction efforts outlined in Plan Colombia are
essential to reducing the availability of illegal drugs and giving
domestic U.S. demand reduction programs a better chance of success.


(end fact sheet)